The 25-minute train trip between Union Station and Pearson requires building a 3-km spur off the Georgetown GO line.

The airport rail link from downtown will take a step forward when construction begins next spring for completion before the 2015 Pan Am Games, Premier Dalton McGuinty said Monday.

The line — which piggybacks most of the way on the existing GO Train tracks to Georgetown — will include a new 3-kilometre spur line branching off to Pearson’s Terminal One. The project is pegged at a cost of $128.6 million, creating about 1,200 jobs, and will whisk passengers from the airport to downtown in 25 minutes.

But there’s still no firm timetable or cost estimate for the promised conversion of the rail line from controversial diesel trains to electric ones that pollute less.

“Certainly, what we’re about to do represents tremendous progress, given the existing alternatives,” McGuinty said, noting the train between Union Station and Pearson International Airport will replace 1.2 million car trips a year.

He maintained the diesel trains will be “state-of-the-art” compared with older models but added that, “we think we can, in fact, over the course of time and in an affordable way, move to an even cleaner option.”

At least one critic remains skeptical there will ever be an electric conversion of the train service, which will pass through neighbourhoods every 15 minutes.

“The deadline around the Pan Am Games may get us an air-rail line, but after that there’s no guarantee,” New Democrat MPP Jonah Schein (Davenport) said after McGuinty’s announcement at the future airport rail link terminal.

As for electrifying the line later, he added: “I don’t’ see the point in spending money twice.”

The chairman of Metrolinx, the transit agency building the air-rail link, said it will take up to four years to do the required design work and environmental assessments for electrifying the line.

“If the decision after that is positive, we’ve have to build out the electrification, so we’d be delaying the project by a significant number of years,” said Rob Prichard.

“We believe the Greater Toronto Area needs this project as fast as possible, and that means going with the cleanest diesel technology in the world.”

Fares for the new train won’t be set until 2014, once all the bills are in. The price of a ticket will be set on a cost-recovery basis — more than a typical GO Train ride but “well under” the typical $50 price of a cab or airport limo downtown, Prichard added.

The Pan Am Games are in 2015, but the goal is to have the rail link in service the year before.

The spur line, at 3 kilometres, may not be very long, but it’s still a “huge” construction project because it will come through an area east of the airport roughly paralleling Highway 409 from the 401 to Pearson, said Toby Lenox, of the Greater Toronto Airports Authority.

The terminal at the airport will be on a platform between two lines of the existing “airport people mover” cable-powered trains that whisk passengers between terminals. The giant concrete supports for the platform, beside a massive parking garage, have been in place since 2004.

More on thestar.com

We value respectful and thoughtful discussion. Readers are encouraged to flag comments that fail to meet the standards outlined in our
Community Code of Conduct.
For further information, including our legal guidelines, please see our full website
Terms and Conditions.